Image forming apparatus and method for producing e-book contents

ABSTRACT

An image forming apparatus is provided. The image forming apparatus includes a function unit which performs a function of the image forming apparatus, a user interface which receives a selection of job data processed by the function unit and a selection of a layout for the job data, a contents production unit which produces electronic book (e-book) contents for the selected job data based on the selected layout, and a communication interface which transmits the produced e-book contents to an external device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No.13/011,443 filed in the United States on Jan. 21, 2011, which claims thepriority benefit from Korean Patent Application No. 10-2010-0056007,filed on Jun. 14, 2010, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

The embodiments relate to an image forming apparatus and a method forproducing e-book contents, and more particularly, to an image formingapparatus which can produce e-book contents using various job data ofthe image forming apparatus, and a method for producing e-book contents.

2. Description of the Related Art

An image forming apparatus refers to an apparatus that prints printingdata generated at a terminal apparatus, such as a computer, on recordingpaper. Examples of such an image forming apparatus are copiers,printers, facsimile machines, and multifunction peripherals complexlyrealizing the functions of the aforementioned devices through a singledevice.

In recent years, as personal mobile devices have been developed andusers are able to obtain diverse information easily, electronic books(e-book) have proliferated as a personal apparatus and contents marketsfor a corresponding apparatus have also proliferated.

Although the e-book contents markets have proliferated as the e-bookmarkets have proliferated, a manufacturer of contents used in an e-bookis limited to a main publishing company. However, there is a limit tothe e-book contents provided by the publishing company and a user shouldpay much money for the e-book contents in some situations.

Therefore, there is a need for a method for producing an e-book usingcontents owned by a user.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, it is an aspect of the embodiments to provide an imageforming apparatus which can produce e-book contents using diverse jobdata of the image forming apparatus and a method for producing e-bookcontents.

The foregoing and/or other aspects are achieved by providing an imageforming apparatus, including: a function unit which performs a functionof the image forming apparatus, a user interface which receives aselection of job data processed by the function unit and a selection ofa layout for the job data, a contents production unit which produceselectronic book (e-book) contents for the selected job data based on theselected layout, and a communication interface which transmits theproduced e-book contents to an external drive.

The image forming apparatus may further include a contents processingunit which extracts a plurality of objects from the selected job data,and the content production unit may produce e-book contents by arrangingthe extracted objects on the selected layout.

If the extracted object is an image, the contents processing unit mayperform at least one process of size conversion, optical characterrecognition (OCR), and color processing of the extracted image orcombinations thereof.

The contents processing unit may extract text by extracting a text datapart of the selected job data as text or by performing OCR with respectto an extracted image object.

The contents production unit may produce e-book contents using atemplate corresponding to the selected layout.

The contents production unit may produce e-book contents in a formatthat is supported by an e-book terminal to which the produced e-bookcontents are to be transmitted.

The user interface may display the produced e-book contents.

The user interface may receive a correcting command with respect to thedisplayed e-book contents, and the contents production unit may correctthe produced e-book contents based on the received correcting command.

The function unit may perform at least one function of copying,printing, scanning, fax transmitting, and fax receiving or combinationthereof.

The image forming apparatus may further include a storage unit whichstores the produced e-book contents.

The job data may include data that is stored in the storage unit as aresult of performing a function by the function unit.

The foregoing and/or other aspects are also achieved by providing amethod for producing e-book contents of an image forming apparatus,including: receiving a selection of job data which has been processed bythe image forming apparatus during a function performing process,receiving a selection of a layout for the job data, producing e-bookcontents for the selected job data based on the selected layout; andtransmitting the produced e-book contents to an external device.

The method may further include extracting a plurality of objects fromthe selected job data, and the producing the e-book contents may includeproducing the e-book contents by arranging the extracted objects on theselected layout.

If the extracted objects are an image, the extracting the objects mayinclude performing at least one process of size conversion, OCR, andcolor processing of an extracted image.

The extracting the objects may include extracting text by extracting atext data part of the selected job data as text or by performing OCRwith respect to an extracted image object.

The producing the e-book contents may include producing the e-bookcontents using a template corresponding to the selected layout.

The producing the e-book contents may include producing the e-bookcontents in a format that is supported by an e-book terminal to whichthe produced e-book contents are to be transmitted.

The method may further include displaying the produced e-book contents.

The method may further include: receiving a correcting command withrespect to the displayed e-book contents; and correcting the producede-book contents based on the received correcting command.

The job data may include data that is used in an operation of performingat least one function of copying, printing, scanning, fax transmitting,fax receiving, or combinations thereof.

The method may further include storing the produced e-book contents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and/or other aspects will become more apparent by describingin detail the exemplary embodiments, with reference to the accompanyingdrawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an image forming apparatusaccording to an exemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 2A-2D are views illustrating transmit flows of job data accordingto an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating examples of a layout according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIGS. 4 to 6 are views illustrating examples of job data used in theimage forming apparatus;

FIG. 7 is a view to explain an operation of a contents production unitof FIG. 1;

FIG. 8 is a sequence chart illustrating a method for producing e-bookcontents according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for producing e-bookcontents according to an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in detail to example embodiments, examples ofwhich are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals refer to the like elements throughout. Exampleembodiments are described below to explain the present disclosure byreferring to the figures.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an image forming apparatusaccording to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 1, an image forming apparatus 100 includes acommunication interface 110, a storage unit 120, a user interface 130, acontents processing unit 140, a contents production unit 150, a functionunit 160, and a controller 170.

The communication interface 110 is adapted to connect the image formingapparatus 100 to a printing control terminal apparatus 10 or an e-bookterminal apparatus 30, via not only a local area network (LAN) orInternet but also a universal serial bus (USB) port. The communicationinterface 110 may receive print job data from the printing controlterminal apparatus 10 and also may receive fax job data from an externalfax server (not shown).

Also, the communication interface 110 may transmit job data generated bythe function unit 160, which will be described later, such as scan jobdata and fax transmit job data to the printing control terminalapparatus 100 or the fax server (not shown).

The communication interface 110 may transmit produced e-book contents toan external apparatus, such as the print apparatus 10 or the e-bookapparatus 30. More specifically, the communication interface 110 maytransmit the e-book contents produced by the contents production unit150, which will be explained later, to the printing control terminalapparatus 10 and/or the e-book terminal apparatus 30. In this case, thecommunication interface 110 may automatically transmit e-book contentsproduced and/or stored in the storage unit 120 to the e-book terminalapparatus 30 when the e-book terminal apparatus 30 is connected to thecommunication interface 110.

The communication interface 110 may receive information of the e-bookterminal apparatus 30 from the e-book terminal apparatus 30. Theinformation of the e-book terminal apparatus 30 may include a format ofe-book contents and a storing capacity supported by the e-book terminalapparatus 30. The information of the e-book terminal apparatus 30 istransmitted to the contents production unit 150 and is used indetermining a format of e-book contents to be produced.

The e-book contents refer to contents that can be used in the e-bookterminal apparatus 30, and may have a format dedicated to the e-book,such as a Portable Document Format (PDF), an electronic publication(EPUB) formAt, and a DjVu format, as well as a format such as a TXTformat, a PPT format, a DOC format, an XPS format.

The storage unit 120 stores job data. More specifically, the storageunit 120 may store job data that is to be used in the function unit 160(input data and/or output data of the function unit 160). For example,the storage unit 120 may store print data (Printer Control Language(PCL), PostScript (PS), Page Description Language (PDL), etc.), scandata, copy data, fax transmit data, and/or fax receive data.

If the image forming apparatus 100 supports a direct printing function,the storage unit 120 may store a file such as a JPG file or a DOC fileand may use the file as print data. The direct printing function refersto a function that performs a printing job directly without executing anextra application at a terminal apparatus, such as a personal computer,a laptop computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or a digitalcamera, simply by transmitting a file to an image forming apparatus.

The storage unit 120 may store the produced e-book contents. Morespecifically, the storage unit 120 may store the e-book contentsproduced by the contents production unit 150. Also, the storage unit 120may store the information of the e-book terminal apparatus 30 receivedfrom the e-book terminal apparatus 30. The storage unit 120 may be aninternal storage medium or an external storage medium of the imageforming apparatus 100, for example, a removable disk including a USBmemory or a web server connected over a network. However, it is notlimited thereto.

The user interface 130 has a plurality of function keys through which auser can set or select diverse functions supported by the image formingapparatus 100, and displays diverse information provided by the imageforming apparatus 100. The user interface 120 may perform input andoutput operations simultaneously, such as via a touch pad or a devicecombining a mouse and a monitor.

The user interface 130 may display a user interface window to receive aselection of job data. More specifically, the user interface 130 maydisplay job data which has been processed and stored in the storage unit120 or display the user interface window to receive a selection of afunction supported by the image forming apparatus 100. Accordingly, theuser is able to select job data for producing e-book contents. Forexample, the user selects a single job data or several job data from thealready-processed job data, thereby producing e-book contents based onthe selected job data.

Also, by selecting a function of the image forming apparatus 100, theuser can select job data generated by or used for the selected functionas job data for producing e-book contents. For example, if the userselects a fax transmit function, data scanned for fax transmission maybe used as job data for producing e-book contents. In this exemplaryembodiment, the image forming apparatus 100 produces the e-book contentswhile performing the functions of the image forming apparatus 100.However, the function may be selected for the purpose of producing thee-book contents. For example, if the user selects a scan function, ascanned document is used for the purpose of generating e-book contents.

The user interface 130 may receive a selection of a layout to be appliedto the job data. More specifically, the user interface 130 may display aplurality of layouts (or templates) to be applied to the selected jobdata, and may receive a selection of one of the displayed layouts (ortemplates). The user may limit the type of object to be included in thee-book contents, and may select an object or an area to be used in theselected job data. For example, the user may set text of the job data tobe used in producing e-book contents or may set an image included in thejob data to be converted into a monochrome image. Also, the user mayselect a format of e-book contents to be produced.

The template recited herein refers to an image that is generated by theuser or generated in the image forming apparatus 100 to be combined withimage data given to the image forming apparatus 100. Diverse templatesare provided according to types of contents.

The user interface 130 may display the produced e-book contents. Morespecifically, the user interface 130 may display the e-book contentsproduced by the contents production unit 150 in the form of a previewimage. Through this, the user can check the preview image of the e-bookcontents to be displayed on the e-book terminal apparatus 30 in advance.If there is a portion needing to be corrected, the characteristic of theobject applied to the produced e-book contents is changed or the layout,such as arrangement and size of each object, is corrected.

The contents processing unit 140 extracts a plurality of objects fromthe selected job data. More specifically, the contents processing unit140 extracts an object that is distinguished from the job data selectedthrough the user interface 130. A detailed extracting operation will beexplained later with reference to FIG. 4.

If the object extracted by the contents processing unit 140 is an image,image-processing, such as size conversion, optical character recognition(OCR), and color-processing, may be performed for the extracted image.Such image processing may be performed based on a user's selection whichis input through the user interface 130 or may be performed by a pre-setprocessing algorithm.

Also, the contents processing unit 140 may extract text by extracting atext data part of the selected job data or by performing the OCR withrespect to the extracted image object. A detailed operation ofextracting text will be explained later with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6.

The contents production unit 150 produces e-book contents for theselected job data based on the selected layout. More specifically, thecontents production unit 150 arranges the object extracted by thecontents processing unit 140 on the layout selected through the userinterface 130, thereby producing e-book contents. The operation ofarranging the layout will be explained later with reference to FIG. 7.

The contents production unit 150 may produce the e-book contents in aformat supported by the e-book terminal apparatus 30 to which theproduced e-book contents are to be transmitted. More specifically, thecontents production unit 150 may produce the e-book content in a formatusable in a corresponding e-book terminal apparatus using theinformation of the e-book terminal apparatus pre-stored in the storageunit 120.

The function unit 160 performs the functions of the image formingapparatus 100, such as copying, printing, scanning, fax transmitting,and fax receiving. More specifically, the function unit 160 may includea copying processor 161, a printing processor 162, a scanning processor163, and a faxing processor 164 or combinations thereof.

The copying processor 161 performs a copying function and controls anoperation of outputting data scanned by a scanning unit through aprinting engine. The scanned data may be stored in the storage 120 ascopy data.

The printing processor 162 performs a printing function and controls anoperation of outputting print data received through the communicationinterface 110 through the printing engine. More specifically, theprinting processor 162 may store Page Description Language (PDL) such asPCL and PS received through the communication interface 110 in thestorage unit 120 as print data, and may store data rendered in a binaryformat in the storage unit 120 as print data.

The scanning processor 163 performs a scanning function and controls anoperation of processing data scanned by the scanning unit in the imageforming apparatus 100. The scanned data may be stored in the storage 120in a RAW data format which does not yet undergo image processing, or maybe stored in the storage unit 120 in the formats of JPG, TIFF, PDF,and/or XPS which have already undergone image processing. Also, thescanned data may be stored as ASCII and/or Unicode data, such as textwhich is text-recognized through the OCR.

The faxing processor 164 performs a fax transmitting function and a faxreceiving function, and controls an operation of outputting fax datareceived from a faxing unit through the printing engine or an operationof transmitting data scanned by the scanning unit to the faxing unit.

The controller 170 controls the components of the image formingapparatus 100. More specifically, if a selection of job data or afunction of the image forming apparatus 100 is received from the user,the controller 170 controls the function unit 160 to perform thefunction of the image forming apparatus 100, and controls the contentsprocessing unit 140 and the contents production unit 150 to producee-book contents for the job data used for performing the correspondingfunction.

If the e-book contents are produced through the above-described process,the controller 170 may store the produced e-book contents in the storageunit 120 or transmit the produced e-book contents to the printingcontrol terminal apparatus 10 and/or the e-book terminal apparatus 30.

As the image forming apparatus 100 according to an exemplary embodimentproduces the e-book contents using the job data used therein, the usercan produce the e-book contents easily. Also, since the user can selector change the layout of the e-book contents to be produced through theuser interface window, user's convenience is enhanced.

FIGS. 2A-2D are views illustrating transmit flows of job data accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

More specifically, if the user selects a printing or fax transmittingfunction, print data or fax transmission data is received through thecommunication interface 110 as shown in FIG. 2A. The received print dataor fax transmission data is processed through the function unit 160, andcorresponding job data is transmitted to the controller 170 so that thecontroller 170 performs an operation of producing e-book contents.

If the user selects a scanning function or a copying function, datascanned through the scanning unit is transmitted to the controller 170so that the controller 170 performs an operation of producing e-bookcontents as shown in FIG. 2C.

If the user selects job data which has been already processed and storedin the image forming apparatus 100, the storage unit 120 transmits thestored job data to the controller 170 so that the controller 170performs an operation of producing e-book contents, as shown in FIG. 2Bor FIG. 2D.

FIG. 3 is a view illustrating diverse examples of the layout.

Referring to FIG. 3, the layout has diverse formats and the user candetermine the layout of e-book contents to be produced by selecting oneof the layouts illustrated in FIG. 3. Also, the three layouts areillustrated but should not be considered as limiting.

FIGS. 4 to 6 are views illustrating examples of job data used in theimage forming apparatus 100.

FIG. 4 illustrates a configuration of PDL data among the job data. Morespecifically, the PDL data includes text, image and vector in view of adata property, and the layout of each object is determined as shown inFIG. 4. Accordingly, in order to produce e-book contents using the PDLdata, elements which are constitutive of each layout of the PDL data areconverted into elements which are constitutive of the e-book.

FIGS. 5 and 6 illustrate a configuration of PCL data among the job data.The PCL data includes a plurality of text data parts as shown in FIGS. 5and 6. Accordingly, the contents processing unit 140 extracts a textpart from the plurality of text data parts.

FIG. 7 is a view to explain the operation of the contents productionunit 150 of FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1, if job data 720 and a layout 710 to be applied tothe job data 720 are selected, the contents production unit 150 performscontents merging with respect to the job data 720 selected by the userbased on the layout 710 selected by the user, thereby producing e-bookcontents 730.

FIG. 8 is a sequence chart illustrating a method for producing e-bookcontents according to an exemplary embodiment.

Referring to FIG. 8, if job data processed by the function unit 160 istransmitted to the controller 170 (805), a format for e-book contents tobe produced is selected (810). More specifically, if the e-book terminalapparatus 30 is connected to the image forming apparatus 100, a formatof e-book contents that is readable by the e-book terminal apparatus 30is selected. In practice, the format may be selected by the user orpre-selected and set by the user.

A layout for the selected job data is selected (815). More specifically,a template to be applied to the selected job data selected by the user.The layout may be pre-selected and set.

Information of the selected format and the layout is transmitted to thecontents processing unit 140 and the contents production unit 150 (820,830). Based on the transmitted information, an object for the selectedjob data is extracted (825), and the extracted object is arranged on theselected layout, so that the e-book contents can be produced (840).

The produced e-book contents are displayed through the user interfacewindow (845), and, if there is a part the user wishes to correct, aseries of operations corresponding to user's correction is repeated(850˜875).

If the e-book contents are finally produced (880), the communicationunit 110 may transmit the produced e-book contents to an externaldevice, such as the e-book terminal apparatus 30 and/or the printingcontrol terminal apparatus 10 (885, 890).

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating a method for producing e-bookcontents according to an exemplary embodiment.

Job data processed in performing a function of the image formingapparatus 10 is selected (S910). More specifically, job data which hasbeen already processed and stored may be displayed, and job data forproduction of e-book contents may be selected through the user interfacewindow, through which a function supported by the image formingapparatus 100 is selected.

Also, a layout for the job data is selected (S920). More specifically, alayout to be applied to the selected job data is selected from among aplurality of layouts.

E-book contents for the selected job data is produced based on theselected layout (S930). More specifically, a plurality of objects areextracted from the selected job data and the extracted objects arearranged on the layout selected through the user interface 130, so thatthe e-book contents are produced. The operation of producing the e-bookcontents has been described in the above and thus a detailed explanationis omitted.

Finally, the produced e-book contents are transmitted to the externaldevice (S940). More specifically, the produced e-book contents may betransmitted to the e-book terminal apparatus 30 and/or the printingcontrol terminal apparatus 10. Prior to being transmitted, the e-bookcontents are displayed and, if there is a part needed to be corrected inthe e-book contents, correcting is performed. The finally producede-book contents are stored in the storage unit 120 of the image formingapparatus 100.

As described above, since the e-book contents can be produced using thejob data used in the image forming apparatus 100, the user can producethe e-book contents easily. Also, since a layout for e-book contents tobe produced is selected by the user, user's convenience is enhanced. Themethod for producing the e-book contents of FIG. 9 is executed in theimage forming apparatus 100 having the configuration of FIG. 1 and canalso be executed in an image forming apparatus having otherconfiguration.

Although a few example embodiments have been shown and described, thepresent disclosure is not limited to the described example embodiments.Instead, it would be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatchanges may be made to these example embodiments without departing fromthe principles and spirit of the disclosure, the scope of which isdefined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. An image forming apparatus, comprising: afunction unit which performs a function of the image forming apparatus;a user interface which receives a selection of job data processed by thefunction unit and a selection of a layout for the job data; and acontents production unit which produces contents for the selected jobdata based on the selected layout.
 2. The image forming apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, further comprising a contents processing unit whichextracts a plurality of objects from the selected job data, wherein thecontents production unit produces contents by arranging the extractedobjects on the selected layout.
 3. The image forming apparatus asclaimed in claim 2, wherein, if the extracted object is an image, thecontents processing unit performs at least one process of sizeconversion, optical character recognition (OCR), color processing of theextracted image, or the combinations thereof.
 4. The image formingapparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the contents processing unitextracts text by extracting a text data part of the selected job data astext or by performing OCR with respect to an extracted image object. 5.The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the contentsproduction unit produces contents using a template corresponding to theselected layout.
 6. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein the contents production unit produces contents in a format thatis supported by a terminal to which the produced contents are to betransmitted.
 7. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 1,wherein the user interface displays the produced contents.
 8. The imageforming apparatus as claimed in claim 7, wherein the user interfacereceives a correcting command with respect to the displayed contents,and the contents production unit corrects the produced contents based onthe received correcting command.
 9. The image forming apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the function unit performs at least onefunction of copying, printing, scanning, fax transmitting, fax receivingor the combinations thereof.
 10. The image forming apparatus as claimedin claim 1, further comprising a storage unit which stores the producedcontents.
 11. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 10,wherein the job data includes data that is stored in the storage unit asa result of performing a function by the function unit.
 12. The imageforming apparatus as claimed in claim 1, further comprising: acommunication interface which transmits the produced contents to anexternal device.
 13. The image forming apparatus as claimed in claim 12,wherein the communication interface to receive information of a terminalapparatus.
 14. The image formation apparatus as claimed in claim 13,wherein the information comprising: one of a format of contents, astoring capacity of the terminal apparatus, or the combinations therein.15. A method for producing contents of an image forming apparatus, themethod comprising: receiving a selection of job data which has beenprocessed by the image forming apparatus during a function performingprocess; receiving a selection of a layout for the job data; andproducing contents for the selected job data based on the selectedlayout.
 16. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprisingextracting a plurality of objects from the selected job data, whereinthe producing the contents comprises producing the contents by arrangingthe extracted objects on the selected layout.
 17. The method as claimedin claim 16, wherein, if the extracted objects are an image, theextracting the objects comprises performing at least one process of sizeconversion, OCR, and color processing of an extracted image (orcombination thereof for consistency).
 18. The method as claimed in claim15, further comprising: transmitting the produced contents to anexternal device.
 19. The method as claimed in claim 15, furthercomprising: receiving information of a terminal apparatus.
 20. Themethod as claimed in claim 19, wherein the information comprising: anformat of contents, a storing capacity of the terminal apparatus, or thecombinations thereof.
 21. The method as claimed in claim 16, wherein theextracting the objects comprises extracting text by extracting a textdata part of the selected job data as text or by performing OCR withrespect to an extracted image object.
 22. The method as claimed in claim15, wherein the producing the contents comprises producing the contentsusing a template corresponding to the selected layout.
 23. The method asclaimed in claim 15, wherein the producing the contents comprisesproducing the contents in a format that is supported by a terminal towhich the produced contents are to be transmitted.
 24. The method asclaimed in claim 15, further comprising displaying the producedcontents.
 25. The method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising:receiving a correcting command with respect to the displayed contents;and correcting the produced contents based on the received correctingcommand.
 26. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the job dataincludes data that is used in an operation of performing at least onefunction of copying, printing, scanning, fax transmitting, fax receivingor combinations thereof.
 27. The method as claimed in claim 15, furthercomprising storing the produced contents.
 28. The method as claimed inclaim 23, wherein the format is selected automatically when the terminalis connected to the image forming apparatus.